Evaluation of the functional health in women of different age on the base of the heart rate variability analysis under the effect of emotions / Nataliia Prokopenko // IOP 2016: 18th World Congress of Psychophysiology IOP (Havana, Cuba, August 31st to September 4th 2016): International Journal of Psychophysiology. – 2016. – Vol. 108, October. – P. 93-94.

Nataliia Prokopenko (Ukraine)1,*State Institute of Gerontology of the National Ukrainian Academy of Medical Sciences, Kiev,UkraineBackground: Change in heart rate is a universal bodily response to any load. Theheart rhythm control system is hierarchically structured. This hierarchical structure ofheart rhythm regulation levels includes the nervous apparatus of the heart itself, anumber of neuronal systems of the spinal cord, brain stem, region of the hypothalamiccomplex, and cerebral cortex. Emotional stress activates both the trophotropic andergotropic regulation systems. The outcome of a stress response depends on therelationship of the activity of these systems. An important role in individual differencesof stress response is played by the initial state of autonomic cardiovascular systemregulation. The goal of the study is to distinguish and quantitatively determine howeach of the regulation levels affects heart rhythm in women of different age duringemotional experiences and to assess the current functional state of an organism andits adaptive reserves on this basis taking into account the background of neurohumoralregulation (vagotonia, normotonia, sympathotonia).Methods: The study involved 37 women (19 women aged 30–40 years and 18 womenaged 60–70 years) without pronounced cardiovascular pathology. Various emotionalstates were induced by suggesting that the subjects imagine situations evokingfeelings of joy (positive emotions) and grief (negative emotions). “Cardiospectrum”computerized pulse diagnostics was used for physiological control of the functionalstate of subjects during emotional tests. The Baevskii stress index (BI) was calculatedaccording to the indices of variation pulsometry, and the centralization index (ICc) wascalculated according to the HRV spectral components as the ratio of the sum of the LFand VLF powers to the HF power. The functional state of subjects was assessed by amathematical model as equations of the discriminant function, which includes the HRVparameters (HR, BI, pNN50, HF %).Results: The internal induction of emotions in vagotonics and sympathotonics causedchanges in autonomic balance towards activation of the sympathetic-adrenal level andan increase in the degree of stress on the regulatory systems of an organism,regardless of age. The spectral structure of HRV indicated a transition of rhythmregulation from the autonomic reflex level to the humoral-metabolic level. Thefunctional state of normotensive patients in both age groups was regulated through aquick response system of the HF component.Conclusions: This indicates that persons with signs of autonomic imbalance havelower adaptive capabilities. It is shown that individual differences related topeculiarities of neurohumoral regulation are among the factors that determine thespecificity and strength of emotional experience